Everyone has heard someone say that they ‘carry all their stress in their shoulders.’ Or maybe you’re one of those people. It’s fairly common to have stress result in physical tension. In fact, it is one of the leading causes for neck, shoulder and low back pain.
When we’re stressed, our muscles naturally tend to contract, and we therefore experience a feeling of tension. Many people may feel tensed in their shoulders or other muscles in ways that aren’t conducive, to a balanced posture.
That may mean you may slouch more, lean with muscles tensing to one side, hold your neck at an awkward angle, or any of the near infinite variations that afflict different people. More often than not, these stress triggered posture issues go completely unnoticed. At least until muscles tighten so much that they cannot be ignored, or when they cause pain significant enough to seek medical attention.
When people undergo episodes of chronic stress, tensed muscles remain in that state without relief. When this happens, the muscles aren’t given the opportunity to rest and realign themselves. That means that while muscles remain constantly tensed, the bones, tendons, ligaments, joints, and nerves suffer. Under this consistent, unnatural pressure, they begin to compress, inflame, or misalign. This results in pain that can range from mild to severe, depending on the resulting misalignment. In times of stress, the pain can become a compounding problem that continues the cycle of stress and pain over and over again.
Look after your stress levels and your spine health. Rather than waiting for mental and physical stress to result in painful health issues that damage your overall well-being, you should strive to seek a safe, natural solution that does more than correct an urgent physical ailment. Thankfully, the practice of chiropractic care can provide patients with this alternative solution. Chiropractic care can help stressed out patients find a solution that reduces both stress as well as back and neck pain. You may not have considered your local chiropractor as a route to relief yet, but there are plenty of reasons to do so:
Chiropractors deal with correcting and adjusting your spine. Most people never associate that practice with stress management, but in truth, it can be an important pillar of not only managing stress, but helping to alleviate stress altogether.
